Change In Leadership Could Be New World’s Last Shot at Redemption

In the latest Forged in Aeternum video from the New World team, it was announced that Scot Lane is no longer the Game Director. He’s apparently still with Amazon Games, though it’s unclear what his new role is. In his place, Katy Kaszynski has been promoted to Game Director.

As someone who played the game at launch and was once in love with New World, I am thrilled to see Lane go. We can’t know for sure his entire involvement, but the community largely blames him for the game’s messy development, constant pivots, and identity crisis. This move was therefore long overdue, but probably too late at this point.

Kaszynski stepping in could only mean good things for the future of New World. While I don’t play the game much anymore, I still follow updates. New World has been looking better, and perhaps she’s to thank for that. The recent development roadmap appears alright too. Kaszynski seems to understand the assignment, so I am cautiously optimistic. And again, it’s not like the game could get any worse at this point.

Something also worth mentioning is the upcoming Lord of the Rings MMORPG, which is being developed by Amazon Games. Lane very well may have been moved to that team. He could potentially drag that project down too, in the same way New World was unable to stick to its original vision.

And one last note about the game: when New World launched in September 2021, the Standard Edition cost $40. With the release of New World: Aeternum in October 2024, the game now costs $60. I feel like New World should go free-to-play at this point, though that might be a bad look doing so under a year after a price increase of $20.

As of 2024, the game has sold approximately 7.6 million units on Steam, generating over $234 million in revenue. New World reportedly sees almost 26,000 daily active players today.